Earth-717 Special 1: Project Origin
by Over9000Pylons
Summary: An alternate time. An alternate world. A secret tale from the past of Black Widow is finally revealed in this crossover special. In 1987, soon after joining SHIELD, the young special agent was sent on an assignment to investigate a potential paranormal disturbance. The events that followed shed light on a deadly conspiracy, and a night that would change Natalia's world forever.
1. Black Room

Earth-717 Special #1: Project Origin

Chapter 1: Black Room

"You have one new message."

"Iain? It's Genevieve. I received the incident reports from the Perseus facility. Were you aware of the gross misconduct that was occurring under your watch? This is completely unacceptable. I hope you have a fitting explanation for all this, because frankly I am this close to filing a full internal investigation and shutting Perseus down. I will not tolerate either incompetence or insubordination within this organization. I've put too much, sacrificed too much, for it all to go up in smoke because of the failures of others. Do I make myself clear? Give me a call back as soon as you get this and we'll set up a meeting with the board. This is your only chance, Hives. Talk to you soon."

* * *

_"Don't you remember this place? The place where you were born?"_

Blood streamed down the man's face.

_"I can feel your thoughts. The ones we put there. The ones that shaped you."_

He turned his head slightly to the side.

_"Welcome home, lapochka."_

* * *

July 11th, 1987

9:36 PM

Janice was typing inside of her cubicle when she sniffed, smelling something warm. Looking up from her work and out into the hallway, she saw Bill walking by with a pizza box in his hand.

"Hey!"

Bill stopped and looked at her.

"Hey, Jan!"

"You got pizza?"

"Yeah. Pepperoni and extra cheese."

Bill opened the box, displaying the pizza to her. It looked delicious.

"Smell that?" asked Bill. "Oh, so good. Want a slice?"

"Um . . . . yes."

Janice grabbed a napkin off her desk and reached into the box, pulling a slice out of it. The gooey cheese stretched and ripped as she yanked out the slice and held it in her hand on the napkin. She smiled at Bill as she bit in, while he closed the box. Janice moaned with pleasure at the taste of the pizza.

"Good?"

"Yes. Oh my god. Mmmm. You get it delivered?"

"Yeah."

"You buzz the delivery guy in? Aristide will be pissed."

"Ah, Genevieve's a fucking rotten bitch anyway."

"True that," chuckled Janice. "That woman needs to get laaaaaaaid. Bet that bony ass hasn't gotten any dick since the Lizard King died."

Bill broke into a laugh, holding his hand over his mouth. Snorts and giggles could be heard from people in the nearby cubicles.

Suddenly, the lights all went out simultaneously.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"You fucking kidding?"

"Power outage?" asked Bill, looking upwards. "What happened to the backup generator?"

"I dunno," responded Janice. "Hey . . . ."

Janice looked over at the phone on her desk. The red light was flashing.

"How can the phone still be . . . ."

A chill shivered up her spine as she felt something move behind her. Slowly turning her head, she saw Bill drop the pizza box. Out of the corner of the window behind him, she could see the face of a little girl, looking through the glass. She noted to herself that that was impossible, given that the window would be several dozen metres into the air. The girl's brow was lowered, with unwashed black hair flowing down both sides of her face. She was wearing a red dress.

One of the overhead bulbs exploded, and then the office was filled with the sounds of gunshots and screaming. Bill was repeatedly struck by bullets from an automatic weapon held by an unseen assailant. Janice screamed as he fell to the floor, his clothes gushing in blood. Frozen by fear, she looked up at the little girl again. The girl's darkened, orange eyes seemed to be staring right at her.

Right through her.

_"Kill them. Kill them all."_

Janice felt the cold, unbroken gaze of the girl pierce her mind. All that was left was shrieking until her brain crumbled to dust.

* * *

ACCESSING DATA FILES . . . .

DATA ACCESSED.

PERSONNEL RECORDS. AUTHORIZATION: FURY. NICHOLAS J.

-Agent Ten: Belova, Yelena-

-Skills: Marksmanship, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Leadership-

STATUS: ASSIGNED.

-Agent Eleven: Sun-Kwon, Jin-

-Skills: Medical Expertise, Field Medic Combat Training, Forensics Analysis-

STATUS: ASSIGNED.

-Agent Thirty-Two: Kaminsky, Kyle-

-Skills: Marksmanship, Computer Sciences, Weapons Engineering-

STATUS: ASSIGNED.

PERSONNEL RECORD REPLACEMENT.

DATA FILE: AGENT EIGHT.

DELETE?

Y.

AGENT FILE DELETED.

NEW FILE. INPUT RELEVANT DATA.

-Agent Eight: Romanova, Natalia Alianovna-

-Skills: Marksmanship, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Infiltration-

STATUS: ASSIGNED.

MISSION COMMANDER:

-Agent Five: Betters, Rodney-

STATUS: ASSIGNED.

CONFIRM MISSION PARAMETERS?

Y.

MISSION PARAMETERS CONFIRMED. FILING ORDERS. CREATING ARCHIVE . . . .

LOG OUT?

Y.

LOG OUT: FURY. NICHOLAS J.

* * *

Kaminsky held the door open for Jin. After she had entered the meeting room, he looked back to see the new agent walking towards him. She had long, red hair that reached down nearly her entire back. Despite the harshness of her cheek bones, she had a beautiful face. He noticed that she had green eyes; a rarity amongst people with her hair colour. He silently wondered whether or not her hair colour was natural, given how vibrant it was. She was wearing a black, form-fitting catsuit with an equipment belt. A handgun holster was affixed to both of her hips. The buckle at the centre of the belt had a red hourglass symbol on it.

He held the door open for her as well, putting on a smile as he did so. She walked past him without looking at him. He frowned and rolled his eyes as he entered the meeting room, letting the door close behind him. He scratched the back of his neck as he took his place in line with the other agents, including Yelena, who was already in the room before they had arrived. She was wearing a similar bodysuit to the new agent, but with small white patches on certain areas. She also had blonde hair. Jin was to his left, Yelena to his right. The new agent was standing on the other side of Yelena.

Rodney was standing in front of a computer on the meeting desk. The portly man was wearing his blue officer's garb, along with a cap that had an eagle logo inside of a circle. Kaminsky noted to himself that he had never seen the man without his cap on. Rodney took a sip from his coffee mug, which had the same eagle logo on it.

"Now that we're all here, let's begin," said Rodney.

Rodney reached out with his right hand and pressed three keys on the keyboard. A projector attached to the ceiling started displaying a slide show of images on the nearby wall. All four agents watched as the images flickered. The first one was of a fairly nondescript office building.

"Seventy two minutes ago, the Armacham Technology Corporation's main headquarters in Portland went dark. The complex they own is composed of three main office buildings and several smaller facilities, all connected via the same private generator."

The images flipped from Armacham's company logo to several other shots of the various buildings making up the complex.

"On top of this, there are reports of an unknown armed force having seized the compound. They've allegedly taken hostages amongst the employees, but no demands have been made at this time."

Kaminsky raised an eyebrow.

"What's Portland PD doing?"

"Nothing. They've been given strict orders to maintain the perimeter but not attempt any kind of infiltration."

"What?" asked Jin. "Who authorized that? And why are we involved?"

"The Director has been monitoring a situation that's been brewing inside of Armacham for a while now. He's the one who gave the order for Portland PD to stay back and let us handle this."

"Handle what? You still haven't told us what this is about, or why you pulled together this team."

Rodney exhaled as the image on the wall flipped to an Armacham file with plenty of censored black bars on the text.

"What I say right now does not leave this room," stated Rodney. "Fury pulled us five in on this. Why us specifically, I don't know, but my orders are that no one else is ever to learn what I'm about to tell you."

Kaminsky and Jin looked at each other with suspicious eyes. Yelena folded her arms. The new agent didn't move.

"According to the files Fury sent me, Armacham was working on a secret project involving a mutant. No details on the identity. Don't know the name, age, or even gender. What we do know is that apparently . . . . it's a telepath."

Kaminsky widened his eyes.

"Oh shit."

"Confirmed?" asked Jin.

"Yeah. The Director's sources say it's the real deal, not like that goose chase a few years back. We have our first confirmed telepath. Able to manipulate psychic energy for numerous effects. Read minds, manipulate thoughts . . . . no one knows how far it goes. This could be the most powerful mutant ever recorded. If word of this got out, it could send the entire country into a panic. According to the classified field report, people at Armacham were experiencing what they referred to as . . . . a paranormal disturbance."

"Fuck."

"No wonder he wants this under wraps," said Kaminsky.

"You're getting sent in under First Encounter Assault Recon protocols. This is a completely unprecedented combat scenario. Secure the site and be ready for anything. I'll be running mission command from here. Agent Ten, you are team leader."

"Understood," said Yelena.

"Agents Eleven and Thirty-Two, you are performing your standard support roles."

Rodney then looked at the new agent.

"Agent Eight, you'll be on point."

She nodded in response. Kaminsky furrowed his brow.

"Your helicopter leaves in ten minutes. Any questions?"

Kaminsky chuckled.

"Yeah, I got one. Are you serious?"

"Yes. Grab your gear. Ten minutes."

* * *

_"They left her in there. Can you believe it? Left her in a little black room."_

The man stared as the blood continued to drip from his forehead.

_"Locked away forever. Out of sight . . . . out of mind. They thought no one would be the wiser. That no one would ever uncover their little secret. The skeleton they had buried so long ago."_

The man cracked a small smile.

_"They were wrong. Someone found it. Found her. Found that little black room, the little black box . . . . and took a peek. They deserve to die. They all deserve to die. Because that's the thing about skeletons . . . . they have all the time in the world, and nothing left to do . . . . but remember."_


	2. Infiltration

Earth-717 Special #1: Project Origin

Chapter 2: Infiltration

"You have one new message."

"Hey, Janice? Hi. Yeah, it's Phil. I was doing some systems analysis down here and I'm getting the same sort of readings as before. Some kind of weird shit is going on and I don't like it. The power units keep fluctuating in this strange kinda pulse pattern, like, they go up, they go down, and back up again, but never really turn off. I mean, these readings are usually just for show, the system's either on or it's off. It ain't random either; the pattern's steady. Might be some kinda mechanical failure, I don't know. Won't know anything until we do a full inspection, but half my crew won't be in til the morning shift. Look, it's probably nothing, but I just wanted to let you know what was going on down here in case one of the lights goes out or some shit. See you tomorrow."

* * *

_"What is the first thing you remember?"_

Whenever he spoke, his lips didn't move. His voice seemed to just hover in his aura. Suddenly, his face was drowned out by a blinding, white light. Another voice entered her mind.

_"No! No, don't do it again. Please!"_

_ "You can hear it, can't you? The pangs of your buried past clawing at the gates."_

_ "Stay away from her!"_

The presence of the other slowly faded as it got further away. The faint edges of a hallway took shape in her vision. She could feel herself moving down the hallway, the air flowing past her arms as she ran down it. It seemed to get longer with each step she took.

_"STAY AWAY FROM HER!"_

The light disappeared. All that was left was the bleeding man.

_"You could feel it too. The sins of the father. The pains of the sister. Everything has to fall into place before it can fall apart. You used to know that."_

* * *

11:17 PM

The team was sitting in the helicopter as it flew over the Portland skyline. Kaminsky was sitting next to Yelena. Sitting opposite him was Jin, who was next to the new agent. Kaminsky was chewing on his bubblegum as usual, a common tactic he used to reduce stress before starting a mission. Yelena seemed to be generally unimpressed with all of her surroundings, and Jin was staring out at the night lights of the city.

Feeling the taste of his gum slowly fade, Kaminsky looked over at the new agent again. He was used to the mannerisms of Yelena and Jin, having worked with them both on multiple occasions in the past. However, not only was this his first mission with the new agent, but apparently this was her first mission for SHIELD. Kaminsky had made a point in the past of taking a long time to trust, and the fact that he hadn't even learned the agent's name yet left him even more unsettled than usual.

He took a moment to look at Jin, who shrugged. He and Jin had seen enough action together to be able to communicate non-verbally in many situations. She knew exactly what he was thinking. Kaminsky narrowed his eyes before finally deciding to speak up.

"Hey."

The new agent didn't look at him.

"Eight."

She slowly turned her gaze. Yelena momentarily looked at Kaminsky before resuming her state of pseudo-meditation. Kaminsky chewed a few times before speaking again.

"Got a name?"

The new agent took a moment.

"Yes."

"Well, good to know. We privy to it?"

"If you wish. I am Natalia Alianovna Romanova."

Kaminsky chuckled.

"Got enough syllables in there?"

"It's Russian."

"I gathered."

Jin rolled her eyes.

"Kyle Kaminsky, if you wanted to know."

"I knew. Do you have any further interrogations to make, Mister Kaminsky? I would prefer to remain focused before we begin."

Natalia pulled two metallic wrist bands out of her pockets, latching them onto each wrist. They were painted a faded beige, and were composed of several cylinders that surrounded the entire wrist.

"Yeah, Kyle's like that," said Jin. "Always making friends."

"What?" asked Kaminsky. "Just wanted to know her damn name. She's the one who made it all difficult."

Suddenly, Rodney's voice came in over their com links.

"Team? This is Rodney. You're a minute from the drop. Agent Eight will move in first. Infiltrate from the ceiling at drop point one. Rest of you, drop point two. Clean and simple, got it?"

"Got it," said Kaminsky.

"Understood," said Yelena.

"Good," replied Rodney. "Let's try to keep this from turning into a complete disaster, okay? And Kaminsky! Keep the chatter to a minimum, alright?"

"Yeah," answered Kaminsky. "Sure."

"Good."

Kaminsky shook his head.

"Problem with working with spies. Everybody hears everything!"

"Drop point one," said the pilot.

The helicopter flew over the roof of one of the main buildings. Natalia stood up and grabbed the black rope attached to the side of the helicopter. Yelena turned her head towards her.

"Natalia."

Natalia looked at Yelena.

"Stay sharp."

Natalia gave Yelena a nod before leaping out the side of the helicopter, sliding down the rope. Letting go of the rope a few metres above the roof, she landed in a three point pose. Quickly surveying her surroundings, she then unlatched her custom-modified MP5 from her back and aimed it at the door to the stairs.

The helicopter moved away, flying to another part of the compound. Taking a moment to breathe, Natalia then approached the door and breached it, aiming her weapon into the stairwell. Noting that it was empty, she pressed her finger to her ear piece.

"This is Agent Eight. I'm going in."

* * *

Genevieve watched the flip clock on her desk, as each passing second ticked by. Her elbows were on top of her desk, and her hands were folded together. She was pressing her mouth against her hands as she stared at the clock. Her breathing was slow and methodical, seemingly regulated by the flipping of the numbers.

Taking a moment to move her pupils in the direction of the window, she looked out at the Portland skyline. She surveyed the numerous lights: static ones coming from buildings, moving ones coming from cars. She knew that millions of people lived in this city.

_"They have no idea what's coming."_

A knock was heard at her door at the precise moment that the clock flipped to 11:20. Genevieve looked down to the right hand side of the desk, which had an open drawer. A loaded revolver was inside.

"It's open."

The door opened, and a large man wearing an ArmaCham Security Force uniform walked into the room. His black hair was slightly greying at the sides of his head, and a thick moustache adorned his upper lip. He was extremely muscular, filling out his uniform in an intimidating manner. Both of his hands had thick, black, leather gloves on them. His left hip had a holster attached, with a large, desert eagle magnum inside of it. A red star was painted on the left side of the pistol's barrel.

He slowly approached her desk, his eyes glaring at her the entire time. Genevieve sighed as she looked up at the man.

"Vanek."

"Miss Aristide."

Genevieve sullenly looked at the clock before shifting her gaze back to Vanek.

"I suppose it's time."

* * *

Yelena landed on the ground first, followed by Jin and Kaminsky. Yelena was holding her submachine gun. Kaminsky had a sniper rifle and Jin had a pistol. They approached the chain-link fence marking the perimeter of the property. Yelena wordlessly vaulted over the fence and performed a somersault, landing on the other side. She continued onward without speaking to her teammates.

Kaminsky groaned.

"Typical."

He pulled a hand-held blast torch from his pocket and sliced open a hole in the fence, which he and Jin promptly entered through. They followed Yelena, who had taken cover at the edge of a small warehouse on the fringes of the compound. She gestured for her teammates to crouch behind her, and they obeyed.

Yelena then grabbed her customized night vision goggles and latched them around her head. Flicking them on, she squinted as she looked towards the main entrance to the compound, where several police squad cars were stationed. She could spot at least a half a dozen officers, but they all seemed to be just milling about.

She took the goggles off and turned to Jin and Kaminsky.

"Six officers at the entrance," she whispered. "Small presence. They probably sent a bunch of the force home after they got the hold order. Just a token group at this point. They won't give us any trouble."

"Good," replied Kaminsky. "Least that part will be easy. Doubt the rest will go as smoothly."

"Follow me."

Yelena walked around the back side of the warehouse, and peeked around the corner to see a relatively bare parking lot between them and the main office building. She threw her hand forward, and Kaminsky rushed across the lot, crouching as he went. He arrived at the building's wall, and surveyed the lot before nodding. Yelena and Jin followed his lead.

* * *

In a hallway deep inside the main ArmaCham office building, one of the overhead fluorescent lights flickered on and off repeatedly. The floor was tiled, with the squares alternating between green and blue. There was a body of a woman in a business outfit crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood, next to a vending machine.

Moving past her, bloodied footprints appeared, one after the other, without anything physical to make them. They were very small, as if belonging to a child.

* * *

Slinking along the inside of a ventilation shaft, Natalia contorted herself in a way so as to make as little noise as possible. Her absolute control of every muscle in her body, which she had honed over decades of rigorous physical and dance training, made her able to effortlessly slither through the vent as quietly as a ghost.

As she pressed onward, her thoughts, which were not nearly as controlled as her body, drifted back to a better time. A simpler time.

She was a ballerina in training at the Bolshoi Theatre. She had been working on her latest routine for weeks, for ten hours a day. The piano movement played over and over again her mind, keeping her focused on the task at hand. As she finished her latest turn, a man walked into the room. He was very well built, his muscles filling out his t-shirt and jeans quite nicely. One hand in his pocket, he watched her with a genuine smile.

Her eyes glowed upon seeing him. She ran up to him and shamelessly bounded into his arms. They pressed their lips against each other, embracing a moment that neither hoped would ever end. As she then lowered her head onto his shoulder, he leaned in close to her ear and whispered into it. What he said made her chest burn with passion.

The time shifted. She was with the same man, but this time they were in casual clothes. They were holding hands and walking along a trail that led into the woods near a large lake. The chill of the autumn air nipped at their skin. The breeze was accompanied by the slow, gorgeous dance of the falling deciduous leaves.

As the two of them stared out at the lake, they took note of a dense fog settling over the body of water. The faintest hint of the opposite shore could be made out. The lake itself seemed to stretch out as far as could be seen in all directions, but Natalia was unsure if that had to do with the fog or not. The man gently squeezed her hand, and she squeezed his in return.

They stood still, staring out at the beautiful portrait of the lake before them. Eventually, the man looked over at Natalia.

_"You'll never forget me, will you?"_

Natalia warmly smiled at the man.

_"Never."_

_ "Heh. To hear you say that, truly warms my heart, lapochka."_

An image of a bleeding man with a crushed face then flashed in her mind for a brief second. Snapping back to the present, Natalia took a deep breath before letting her memories fall back out of her focus. Arriving at a grate, she carefully undid the bolts, before slipping out and landing on the floor. She was inside of a hallway, with several open concept offices on either side.

Stealthily moving from office to office, she found no activity on the entire floor, until she reached the last office near the elevators. Keeping a pistol in her right hand, she pressed her body against the wall next to the opening. Closing her eyes and focusing all of her attention on the auditory plane, she could hear the breathing of someone under the desk.

Natalia stepped into the doorway, aiming her pistol at the desk.

"Get up."

"Uh . . . . okay, okay, I'm comin' out! Just don't shoot, please, please!"

A man stood up from behind the desk. He had fairly unkempt shoulder length hair, and was wearing a t-shirt with a logo for _The Terminator. _He also had jeans and running shoes. Holding his hands up in the air, the man started to hyperventilate as he looked at the gun pointing directly at him.

"Hey, hey . . . . I did what you said. You gotta let me go now, please? Ya gotta."

Natalia took a step toward him, narrowing her eyes as she did so. She did not waver her aim.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Name's Marshall. M-Marshall Disler. Work here. I, I'm . . . . I'm just a computer tech. Systems analysis. I swear, it's all I do. Ya gotta believe me."

"What are you doing up here by yourself?"

"Late hours. Crunch time, ya understand? I was workin' on some data sheets, pickin' up slack for some members of my crew. Told them it had to be done by Thursday, but they don't listen to me. Lazy pricks. Then, all a sudden, I hear shots. Lots of shots. Must be automatic weapons, ya know? Came from downstairs. Heard screams and shit. Was horrible. Got scared, so, I hid up here. Haven't heard anything for a while, but, ya understand, I'm just, I'm just, you know, a tech guy. I'm not exactly expecting to show up to work and have the place overrun by goddamn commandos."

Natalia took a moment to consider Marshall's words before replying.

"Are you armed, Mister Disler?"

"Me? Nah. Nah! Never held a gun in my life! Well, a Nerf gun back in college, but never anything real! Mean, look at you, army! Got weapons pourin' outta every pocket! Just . . . . will you please stop aiming that thing at me?"

Natalia lowered her gun, relaxing her stance. Marshall sighed and let his hands fall to his side.

"So, you're not with the guys who took this place over, I take it?"

"No."

"Well, good. Don't think I can take another hit to my ulcer. I just hope most of the people I work with are still alive. Heard so many screams. Don't know if anyone else made it."

Natalia took the clip out of her pistol and checked it before stuffing it back in.

"How long have you worked here?"

"Me? Uh, four years? Yeah. Four years, and uh, c-couple months more than that. Mean, nice job, sure. Cushy, good benefits, but it ain't worth dyin' over."

"What guarantee do I have that if I leave, you won't alert anyone to my presence?"

Marshall widened his eyes at the question, and took a step back.

"Hey, hey, hey, thought w-we were good," stammered Marshall. "I ain't working w-with those guys. Hell, don't wanna work 'ere anymore anyway! Just wanna go home, ya know? Ya gotta believe me. Hell, I'd help ya if I could. Mean, you are here to save the place, right? One of Genevieve's friends?"

"Genevieve?"

"Genevieve Aristide. She's the boss 'round here. Still in the building, far as I know. Don't work for her?"

"No. But I am here to help."

Marshall smiled in relief.

"Ah. Good. Genevieve's a bitch, so, any friends of hers are probably jerks too."

"And you have no idea who are the people who have taken over the building? Anything about hostages?"

"Nah, nah. Don't know nothing 'bout them. Don't know who would wanna attack this place, anyway."

Natalia sighed at Marshall's words.

"But, bet I could find out. If anyone wants to hit ArmaCham, it's probably cause of Genevieve. Runs this place like a goddamn death camp. Tellin' ya, whoever did this wants her miserable ass dead, or worse. You let me go, and I'll do some diggin'. Since the place went down, the auxiliary generator finally kicked in, turned on some of the lights. Should be able to get at least one of these damn computers working, and I'll see if I can crack into Genevieve's files, look for any clues. I find anything good, and I'll let you know. Sound square to you?"

Natalia breathed in and again took a moment to consider. She then nodded at Marshall.

"Good. Thanks. Ya won't regret it."

Natalia opened one of her pockets and pulled out an ear piece. She tossed it to Marshall, who awkwardly caught it.

"Use that to contact me if you find anything."

"Alright. You got it."

Natalia started walking out of the office.

"Good luck," said Marshall. "And uh, will you please not mention me to uh, you know, mission control, or whatever ya got? Kinda don't want anyone else comin' after me. Ya understand?"

"I understand."

"See you around, Natalia."

Natalia nodded before walking down the hall and towards the stairs.

* * *

_"Can you hear her? Can you?"_

The bleeding man stepped out of the darkness, slowly walking into view.

_"She's the same as you, you know. Clawing at the walls. Begging to see the light. Hoping beyond hope to finally find the answers."_


	3. Escalation

Earth-717 Special #1: Project Origin

Chapter 3: Escalation

"You have one new message."

"Genevieve? It's Carson Salyers. Why aren't you answering your fucking phone?! I know that Origin has gone dark. Hell, soon the whole damn city will know. Given that you conveniently seem to have disappeared, I'm going to assume this is your fault. I'm allocating resources to investigate the nature of the threat, and if this is what I think it is, so help me God, by the time I'm done with you your next of kin won't be able to recognize you! I let you on this board of directors because you said you could get the job done. Instead, I now have calls coming in from Washington asking if we should evacuate all of Multnomah County! You had better get back to me and tell me what's really going on, because the way I see it, by tomorrow morning, we could end up having a shitstorm on our hands that will make Watergate look like a fucking back alley cockfight!"

* * *

_"You've seen him again. I remember him. I remember him quite well."_

The bleeding man licked his lips, sucking some of his own blood into his mouth.

_"We all knew who you were. That scared little girl, plucked straight from birth. You would never know what was waiting for you . . . . on the other side."_

A few drops of blood seemed to fall from the non-existent ceiling, dribbling onto her toes.

_"You're getting closer now. I can feel the awakening. It's coming quite soon."_

The bleeding man laughed.

_"Yes. One, big family reunion."_

* * *

11:31 PM

Yelena entered the lobby first, followed by Jin and Kaminsky. There were a handful of ceiling lights on, providing uneven illumination across the lobby floor. The main desk had plenty of papers and materials strewn about it, but was abandoned. A large logo for the ArmaCham Technology Corporation was plastered in metal lettering on a wooden wall behind the desk. There was no movement.

Yelena exhaled and stood still as she surveyed the room.

"Sun-Kwon," she said. "Check the desk."

"Yes ma'am," replied Jin.

Kaminsky looked at the entrance doors. There were several glass panes at the entrance, all intact. Several of the faded lights from the police cruisers could be seen, their light refracted by the glass panes.

Jin walked up behind the main desk, and immediately took a step back.

"Ugh."

Yelena sharply turned her head towards Jin.

"What is it?"

"See for yourself."

Yelena and Kaminsky approached Jin, and looked around the back of the desk. There was a steaming puddle of blood covering both the floor and the chair, and a roasted skeleton lying in it.

"Oh, shit," said Kaminsky.

The skeleton was heavily damaged; there were burn marks across many of the bones, indicating that it had been seared with intense heat. No flesh or clothing was left.

"The hell did this?" asked Kaminsky.

"No clue," replied Jin.

"That was not from gunshots," said Yelena. "Sun-Kwon, start analysis. See if you can find out what killed this poor bastard."

"It's a girl," said Jin. "Look at the pelvis. Wider than a man's. Also, the skull has the finer mastoid process of a woman. Quick estimate, I'd say no older than twenty five. Probably just the secretary."

"Alright," replied Yelena. "Get started. I want to know what we're dealing with here."

"Yes ma'am."

Yelena crouched next to the skeleton and pulled out her forensics kit. As Jin worked, Kaminsky looked up, to see that there was no direct ceiling; rather, you could see each of the upper floors, which all had balconies overlooking the lobby. As he scanned his eyes across the various balconies, he saw the outline of a small girl with black hair in what looked like a red dress.

"Huh?"

He then heard a soft giggle coming from behind him. Quickly turning his head, he saw nothing. He then looked back up at the balcony, but the girl was not there.

"Kaminsky!"

Kaminsky looked over at Yelena, who had a raised eyebrow.

"You alright?"

Kaminsky silently looked back up at the balcony for a moment before shaking his head and facing Yelena.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

"This is gonna take some time," said Jin, as she took several photos of the skeleton. "You better go on ahead, I'll hold the fort here."

"Alright," said Yelena. "Radio in when you've got some answers. Kaminsky, you're with me. Let's go."

Kaminsky nodded and followed Yelena towards the stairs. He was silent now, with several tingles running down his spine. He couldn't help but wonder whether or not he had just imagined the little girl.

On one of the balconies overlooking the lobby, the same girl from before look back down at Kaminsky from behind. She giggled and ran away, leaving bloodied footprints as she went.

* * *

Wielding her MP5 again, Natalia worked her way through more of the lower offices. Nothing was in disarray except for the lack of people. Natalia poured over the contents of several of the offices, noting that almost nothing was out of place; there were no signs of any kind of struggle. It felt like there hadn't been any sort of disturbance at all.

The com link in her ear flicked on.

"Natalia," said Rodney. "How's it going? You find anyone yet?"

"No."

"Shit."

"I've searched two floors. So far, no activity."

"Place sounds like a fucking ghost town, but how is that possible? Alright, keep looking. Let me know if anything changes."

One of the overhead lights flickered for a brief moment.

"Understood. Has Yelena's squad reported anything yet?"

"Yeah. Sun-Kwon found a body in the lobby. Apparently she said it was some nasty shit. So someone has been killing somebody in here, but now the whole place has gone dark, and there's no one around? Something's not right with this. Maybe has to do with the mutant, I dunno. Keep your guard up."

"Yes sir."

Walking down another flight of stairs, she took aim down the hallway and raised an eyebrow upon seeing what was in front of her. The expected office hallway in fact had no features, aside from a set of cyan painted double doors at the far end. The rest of the hallway was completely barren, with no other entrances or exits.

Natalia took a moment to consider whether or not she had turned the wrong way. Quickly retracing her steps, she found that this was the only staircase leading down from the previous floor. Shaking her head, she again returned to the new hallway, knowing that this was not standard building design.

She proceeded to walk down the hallway anyway, keeping her MP5 aimed forward the entire time. Keeping track of her breathing, she found that with each step she took, the pace of her breath seemed to heighten ever so slightly. The double doors seemed to be glowing, drawing her towards them, but she knew that was impossible.

Then she heard a faint gasp, no louder than a whisper. It seemed to be coming from within her own ears.

Natalia instantly turned around, aiming her gun down the opposite direction. There was nothing behind her. She then aimed up, to the left, to the right, and every direction in between, but nothing had changed.

Nothing was there. Nothing was wrong.

Natalia lowered her gun, taking a moment to close her eyes and breathe. Returning to her senses, she then turned around again and faced the double doors. They had not moved or changed in any way. Swallowing, she then continued her approach. Her steps were slower now, each one fully deliberate in how they pressed against the tiled floor.

Then she heard something she was not expecting.

_"I'm sorry . . . ."_

Natalia knew that the thought was not hers. It was a male voice, but did not seem to come from any outside source.

_"I didn't know . . . ."_

Fixed to the spot, Natalia heard nothing but her own breathing, which started coming from her mouth. Her lips hung slightly agape, the air flowing in and out over her moisture-laden tongue. She blinked, and heard the voice again, but this time, she knew it was coming from behind her.

_"It wasn't my fault . . . ."_

Natalia spun around and looked at the corner of the stairwell, and could see the pale, bloodied form of a man peeking around the corner. He had no eyes; they had been carved out, and the sockets were bleeding out and down his cheeks. She screamed and fired a burst of fire from her submachine gun. The bullets caused the man to explode into little flecks of dust. At the same time, the voice was heard again in the back of her mind.

_"We should have stopped."_

Sweat dripping down both of her temples, Natalia ran back down the hall, to the corner. She looked up the stairs, at the floor and at the walls, but could see no trace of the man. Nothing but dust was on the floor, and she couldn't remember if it had already been there. She bent down, and swiped at the dust with her left index finger.

Looking at the grey specks on her black, gloved hand for a few seconds, she realized that it really was just dust. Wiping her hand off, she shook her head and rubbed the top of her hairline. As she stood up, she began to turn back down the hallway before a startling realization dawned on her.

There were no bullet holes in the wall.

She crouched down again, and started to meticulously look over the entire segment of the wall that she could have shot at. The entire wall was devoid of any markings that would indicate being struck by any object, much less a bullet. She knew that her burst of fire was composed of four shots, but they had completely vanished along with the man.

Standing up, she took a moment to consider a new possibility, one that she was not comfortable doing. Still, she had to know. Swallowing again, she then unlatched the clip from her MP5, and took a look inside.

No bullets were missing.

She felt the blood drain from her face as she looked at the topped off clip. She then felt compelled to look over her shoulder, and when she did so, she gasped upon seeing that the double doors were mere inches from her face. They then burst open, and a large wave of blood, almost two metres tall, rushed to envelop her.

* * *

A bathroom on the fourth floor was vacant. Only one of the lights was on, with the overall room being quite dim. The small splashes of light massaged the smooth glass of the mirrors over the sink. Nothing moved inside the room. Then, a nearly imperceptible crying could be heard, if anyone had been there. It was the soft sobbing of a young girl, but there was no one in the room from who it could be coming from.

The voice of the girl then abruptly screamed, and the glass of all the mirrors cracked, the light rushing to fill in the newly formed grooves.

* * *

"Watch this."

Natalia and the well built man were standing in a Siberian forest, with no other people for miles in all directions. Their poly-cotton canvas tent, painted a dull blue, was a couple metres away from them, lodged next to a pile of supply and weapon crates. Natalia watched as he, still in his casual clothes, fired a shot from his rifle. It destroyed the target, a couple hundred metres away. The man grinned at her.

"What do you think?"

"I think you've asked for my opinion on about seven guns now, Alexi, and I'm getting worn out."

Alexi heartily laughed, placing the rifle on the back of his shoulder. Natalia's eye was drawn to the silver band on his left ring finger. It matched the one she was also wearing.

"Now you know how I feel when you ask me how I like your ballet routines over and over. I'm an enthusiast."

"So I see."

Alexi walked over to the weapon crates and undid the latches on the largest one before putting the rifle inside. He then looked over at one of the smaller crates.

"Just one more, I promise."

Natalia folded her arms, and gave Alexi a stern glare.

"One more?"

"My personal favourite. It's special. Like you."

Alexi reached for the crate, grabbing it with both hands.

* * *

Natalia's eyes burst open, the sound of her panting breath filling the air around her. She immediately jumped up from the floor and got into a battle ready pose, holding a combat knife in front of her, with a pistol in her other hand.

"Natalia!" called Rodney through her com link. "Natalia, do you read?"

"I'm here."

"Lost your signal for a few seconds. Looked kinda hazy. You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Huh. Maybe the equipment's acting up. What's your status?"

"Still searching."

"Alright. I'll leave you to it."

Rodney switched off the com link. Natalia took a few moments to absorb her surroundings and check the pouches on her belt to make sure she still had all of her materials. She was inside of a cubicle floor, mostly intact but completely devoid of life. Circle strafing around the room, she found no other movement. She also had no idea how she had gotten there.

Breathing heavier than she should have, Natalia closed her eyes for a moment before lowering her arms. She thought back to the hallway, and the double doors that opened to a sea of blood. What happened after that? Thinking about it caused a painful wave of static to clog up her mind.

A light then appeared and flashed on her from behind.

"Contact!"

Natalia nearly snapped her neck to look over her shoulder, seeing four heavily armed commandos entering the room from behind her. They were wielding FAMAS assault rifles, with flashlights attached to the underbellies of their guns. Wearing gas masks and helmets, their faces were completely enshrouded.

"Hey! You!"

Responding at full speed, Natalia performed a sideways flip to get out of the line of sight. Landing on her right hand, she held out her pistol with her left and fired two bullets at the closest commando, both of which landed in his neck.

"Argh!"

Gobs of blood spurted from the commando's throat, and his remaining allies started firing their assault rifles in Natalia's direction. Having already taken cover behind one of the cubicles, she started crouch walking in a zigzag pattern amongst the various short walls.

"Spread out!" yelled one of the commandos. "Find her! You! Call it in!"

"Yes sir! Delta Team! Echo Team! Come in! We have an unknown hostile at my location! Send backup!"

Ducking under a desk, Natalia concentrated on controlling her lungs, slowing her breathing to a halt. One of the patrolling commandos walked past the desk she was under, and she silently moved out from under it and pounced on him, stuffing her combat knife into his right temple. She let him fall to the floor, but held up his shoulders just before they made contact with the carpet, gently letting him down to avoid making noise.

Sneaking off to another location, Natalia didn't have to wait long for one of the commandos to find his fallen comrade.

"She got Lewis!"

"Fuck!"

The commando crouched next to Lewis and saw that his head was bleeding profusely. He then shined his flashlight up to the ceiling, but saw no one there.

"Where the fuck are you?"

Crouching on the overhead rafters, Natalia again reverted to her completely still state. Her hands were clinging to the beam she was on, and her feet were flat next to them, her knees bending at a sharp angle, leaving her in a perched position. She watched as two more squads of commandos entered from the side entrance to the room. She now counted ten commandos in total. Furrowing her brow, she placed her body horizontally along the beam and started slinking along it towards a new position.

"What happened?"

"Some crazy bitch was in here! Shot Tom, and stabbed Lewis in the fucking head!"

"Shit."

"What'd she look like?"

"Some fucking redhead whore in a leather suit. Didn't get a good look before she went fucking nuts."

"Alright, two by two formation! No one goes anywhere alone! Stirling, you're with me. Everyone else, I want this place sweeped. I don't care if you find a fucking mouse, I want it reported, you understand?"

"Yes sir!"

As the main group of commandos broke up into smaller, two man teams, they started to cover the entire area, looking in all of the hiding places they could think of. Waiting motionless on the rafters, Natalia put all of her focus on maintaining her balance and steadying her breathing. Her body was suspended by her legs and hands, with all four of her extremities resting on the rafter in a straight line. The position of her contorted body would have caused extreme pain in a matter of moments for any normal person; it was merely par for the course for a master ballerina and gymnast.

Noticing that one of the teams was getting close, and that they were pointing their flashlights upwards, Natalia took in a deep breath before putting all of her weight on her left hand. Holding up her entire body as a vertical line, she managed to stay in the darkness as one of the light beams moved over part of where her body was when she was horizontal. After it passed, she got back into her previous position.

"Start checking the other rooms! You two, sweep this area again."

Natalia looked down for a moment before returning her eye to the rafter she was on. Raising an eyebrow, she saw that a tiny white mouse was crawling towards her. Sniffing the metal beam in front of it, the mouse then looked up at Natalia, seemingly with curiosity. It tilted its head to the side, before opening its mouth ever so slightly as if to squeak.

Before it could make a noise, Natalia sharply brought down her knife, skewering the mouse's skull. She was careful to not bring down the knife hard enough that the tip would scrape the metal of the rafter. The mouse's leg muscles flopped about for a few seconds before going limp. Gently lowering the mouse's corpse, Natalia's eyes then widened as she saw that a few drops of blood dribbled from the skull wound and fell off the edge of the rafter.

The droplets landed on the shoulder pad of the one of the commandos.

"The hell?"

The commando jerked his head to look up at Natalia.

"She's up there!"

Natalia wordlessly leaped off the rafter as the commandos fired up at her. As she tore through the air in a backwards somersault, she unloaded several shots from her wrist gauntlets into the two commandos, ripping through their body armour.

She landed in a wide spread pose, and heard the rest of the commandos rushing back to the room. She quickly pulled out her knife and pistol, preparing herself for close quarters combat.

"She's in here!"

Performing a fouetté turn as she approached one of the doors, her outstretched leg kicked an incoming commando in the stomach, which stunned him before she swung out with her knife arm, slashing the man's throat. Using her right hand to place her pistol's barrel on the other commando's face before pulling the trigger, she then saw that the rest of the commandos were approaching her from the other side of the room, wildly firing their weapons. She detached a small, silver orb from her belt and tossed it towards them, and the orb then split apart into several cluster grenades.

"Grenade!"

"Shit!"

The cluster grenades exploded, creating a massive wall of fire. Natalia was temporarily blinded by the light and heat, wincing in pain. When she did look back, she saw that the fire was creating a corridor, and in the centre was the shadowy silhouette of a young girl with black hair and a red dress. Natalia looked directly into the girl's eyes in terror. She had no pupils: just empty, orange eyes, filled with nothing but scorn and rage.

_"I know who you are."_

Natalia was then lifted off the ground by an unseen force. She screamed as she was flung backwards, crashing through one of the windows of the office building, dozens of metres above the ground.

* * *

_"I didn't know that she would be here."_

The bleeding man broke out into a hysterical laugh. His teeth were coated with red fluid, some of it gushing out from within his lips.

_"Remarkable, isn't it? How things all come together? Just as they were. Just as they should have always been."_

He turned away, taking a step into the darkness.

_"Never presume to know everything, my dear. For you never know what might become the thing you dread."_


	4. Dead Echo

Earth-717 Special #1: Project Origin

Chapter 4: Dead Echo

"You have one new message."

"Hello? Doctor Green? It's Genevieve. I need to speak to you about something important and it can't afford to wait. I know you said you performed the proper background checks, and I want you to know that I'm not doubting your judgement. I hope you know that. However, I have some concerns about the specialist you brought in last week, Doctor Essex. His references are exemplary and his technical expertise certainly cannot be questioned, but I believe that he may pose a security risk. I've received reports from multiple employees, who shall remain nameless, that he's been spotted in areas he does not have clearance for. Now, I know how much hard work you've put into this project, Doctor. No one else could have done those interviews, and the work that you've done so far has been invaluable to Origin. I shouldn't have to explain how terrible it would be for us to get shut down from above because of some guest with too much curiosity. I'm afraid I'll be taking him off the project, effective immediately. Whether he actually poses a threat or not, I can't leave any loose ends when we're this close to our deadline. I hope you understand. If you have any questions, give me a call back. I'll see you on Monday."

* * *

_"Ring-a-round the rosie . . . ."_

The bleeding man was pacing in a circle, his hands held behind his back.

_"A pocket full of posies . . . ."_

He stopped pacing, his back facing her.

_"Ashes, ashes . . . ."_

The bleeding man turned around, with a devious smile.

_"We all fall down."_

* * *

12:12 AM

All Natalia could hear was her own breath being taken away. There she was, staring up into the moonlit sky, her hands outstretched as if reaching for the stars. Her body was being carried by the night wind, completely out of her control. Thousands of miniscule shards of glass danced around her, framing her elegant descent as if it were a beautiful, season-opening performance. She knew not how long it would take for her to meet with the ground, and in truth, it did not matter. This one moment seemed to last for the rest of her life.

* * *

The heat from the fire had died down significantly, the last few sputtering embers providing miniscule amounts of light amongst the charred, ashen remains of the woodpile. The fire was no longer required now that Natalia and Alexi were sharing body heat with each other. The entire tent rustled with their movements, as she pinned him to the ground with the movements of her pelvis.

They had a blanket over-top the mattress they were on, but it barely covered their legs, having been almost completely displaced by their sensual intimacy. She was so used to control when it came to her body, with each muscle movement being completely and strategically calculated. But here, the moment was theirs, and theirs alone, and so she, for once, allowed herself to let go.

Gripping his palms with her hands, she forced herself down, putting plenty of pressure on his frame. The rigorous and exhaustive performance that followed even managed to knock over one of the nearby supply crates. Her fingernails gripped themselves into the skin of his hands, and she did not let go until they both finally achieved their release.

The following morning, the two found themselves standing outside the tent, in their pyjamas. His right arm was placed around her shoulders, and she was leaning into him. With his left hand, he held a military issue combat knife, and started carving out part of a nearby tree. She smiled and just let herself feel his warmth as she watched him continue to carve. As he finished and placed the knife back onto his belt, he looked down at her.

"What do you think?"

"I love it."

* * *

The moment finally ended.

Instinctively reaching for her belt with her left hand, she arched her neck as far back as she could. She saw a helicopter flying slightly over her, shining its light beam across her gracefully falling form. The helicopter had a yellow ArmaCham Security Force logo emblazoned on the side of it. Gripping and then aiming her grappling hook launcher at the helicopter's landing gear, Natalia closed one eye before squeezing the trigger.

The grapple line burst out from the launcher, propelled forward by the pressure of the trigger. The line latched onto the right piece of landing gear, and the hook swung around a couple of times before locking in. Lurching with the sudden weight, the helicopter quickly righted itself as Natalia swung under it. Grabbing the launcher with both hands, she then braced herself and pulled her legs in as she stared at one of the lower windows.

Swinging forward again, she then kicked her legs out and let go of the grapple launcher at the same time, flying forward like a missile. She crashed through the glass of the lower window and performed a series of forward facing cartwheels until she landed on her feet. The helicopter lowered itself so that she was in plain range of its beam. She took in a heavy breath before turning her head to look at the helicopter.

Then it started firing.

Natalia reacted without even thinking. Before the first bullets from the helicopter's chain gun had even landed, she had already torn into a full on sprint, rushing through the office complex in a direction perpendicular to the way the helicopter was facing. It moved laterally along with her, firing a sea of high velocity rounds that shattered all of the walls and furniture that it touched. Shards of wood, glass, paper, metal and plastic turned into a torrential storm that followed Natalia's flight, nicking at her heels the entire time.

* * *

Yelena tapped her ear piece as she ran up a set of stairs, with Kaminsky right behind her.

"Natalia!" she shouted. "What's happening?!"

"No time to talk!" yelled Natalia, with the overwhelming sound of gunfire in the background.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Running!"

Kaminsky rushed over to the closest window and looked up, seeing the helicopter several floors above, unleashing the full measure of its chain gun. Wielding his sniper rifle with both hands, he assumed a crouching position and took aim. Yelena glared at him.

"Kaminsky! What are you . . . .?"

Not responding to Yelena, Kaminsky zoomed in on the helicopter's tail rotor, and fired a shot at the central bolt. The high-calibre round ripped through both the glass of the window and the steel of the rotor bolt, shredding most of the tail end of the helicopter. Instantly destabilized, the helicopter's aerial integrity faltered as it stopped shooting.

"Kaminsky!" shouted Yelena, approaching him. "What the hell was that?"

Kaminsky scowled at her.

"Saving a teammate."

Yelena and Kaminsky both looked up to see the helicopter spinning, clearly no longer under control of its pilot. Kaminsky then gasped as he watched the helicopter smash into the side of the building, becoming engulfed in an enormous fireball.

* * *

"Sample collection complete. Placing in storage for lab analysis."

Jin let go of the button on her personal recorder as she placed her sample vials inside of a containment pack in her forensics kit. Crouching on one knee next to the corpse, she exhaled and shook her head as she looked back and forth along the length of the skeleton.

She pushed and held down the button on her recorder again.

"Can't figure it out," she said. "Nothing about this makes any sense. The bones are seared, almost looks as if they're burned, but other parts of the skeletal frame are completely clean. Bare white. I can't imagine anything natural causing such damage, and even then, zero trace of flesh or clothing fragments? That stuff doesn't just up and disappear."

Jin gulped before continuing. A nervous chill settled in the lower part of her gut.

"Conventional science tells me that this is impossible. Unless it's some prototype chemical weapon, or something, I can't think of anything that could do this to a person. Melts flesh? Superheated blood? Heard about something like that in one of the files on Nazi bio-weapon prototypes, but this is even stranger. There'd be some trace of the stuff, something I could pin point. But now I'm thinking . . . . what if conventional science can't answer this one? Rodney said we're dealing with a complete unknown with this mutant. I mean, a telepath? Shit, I thought that stuff only happened in science-fiction, but . . . . what if that's part of it? What if psychic energy can do this? I mean, this could change everything."

Jin took a moment to close her eyes and wipe her forehead.

"I just wish I had some clue. Something to give me a hypothesis. Something concrete. I just wish I could see something, anything that could tell me what we're dealing with."

As Jin let go of the button on her recorder, two ghostly hands phased through the wooden wall behind her, reaching for her throat.

* * *

Vanek led Genevieve into the main laboratory chamber. Several ArmaCham Security Force officers were behind them, their weapons at the ready. Her heels made a soft but distinctive clanking noise each time she took a step on the metal grating on the floor. She kept her eye on the desert eagle magnum in Vanek's holster.

Vanek stopped in front of the central orb. Genevieve turned to look at the massive, blue sphere, which was was mostly full of a gyrating, glowing liquid. Over a dozen metallic tubes were connected to the top of the orb, all funnelling towards the hovering silhouette in the middle of the liquid chamber.

The silhouette was in the shape of a young girl. Genevieve took a step towards the orb.

"Hello again, Alma."

The silhouette did not move or respond in any way, but Genevieve knew she had Alma's attention.

"It's time for you to wake up."

* * *

Holding her stomach, Natalia winced as she trudged away from the smouldering wreckage of the helicopter, which had barged through windows on multiple floors. Flames and shards of twisted and fused metal littered the perimeter of the helicopter's remains, with the decapitated corpse of the pilot laying as a motionless guardian at the core of the vehicle.

As she walked further away from the wreck, she could hear multiple voices pouring into her com link.

"Natalia!" yelled Kaminsky. "Natalia!"

"I'm here."

"The fuck just happened?!" asked Rodney.

"Enemy presence confirmed," answered Natalia. "Several teams of commandos, likely mercenary given their garb. Looks like they stole a helicopter too, because it had a logo for ArmaCham Security. The people guarding this place never stood a chance."

"But then where are they?" asked Yelena. "We haven't met anyone else here, not even bodies. Did they hide them? Move them somewhere else? Why would they?"

"One question at a time, Belova," stated Rodney. "Natalia, are you hurt? Sounds like you took a nasty hit."

"I did, but I'm still moving. Don't know how much of the mercenary force was just killed. Given the level of mobilization they had, I suspect there's still more in the building."

"Anybody got any word on the mutant?"

"None so far."

"Shit. Jin? What about you?"

No response was heard.

"Jin?" asked Rodney. "Sun-Kwon! Do you read me?"

No response.

"Where is she?" asked Kaminsky. "We were just with her not too long ago."

"Her life signs are still active but her com link is dead," explained Rodney. "That's weird. Life signs are on but fuzzy. Almost like the system is having trouble reading them."

"Well shit, we gotta go back and find her!"

"We don't have time for that, Kaminsky," said Yelena. "We still haven't covered much of the building."

"Screw the building, Jin might be in trouble!"

"Belova's right, Kaminsky," said Rodney. "Jin can handle herself. I'm not having you two waste time going back for her just to find out she has a bit of wonky equipment. We gotta stay focused. We still have no location or identity on the mutant, and much of the building is unaccounted for. Your orders are to resume securing the site, is that clear?"

Kaminsky didn't respond.

"Is that clear?"

"Yeah, Big Five. We're clear."

"Good."

"Keep moving, Natalia," ordered Yelena. "We'll meet up with you soon."

"Understood."

Natalia heard her com link finally turn off, and she took a few moments to walk over to an open doorway that led out to a hall. Placing her back against the wall, she slid herself down until she was sitting on the floor, her knees bent out in front of her. She knew that she needed to continue moving, but the storms of pain tearing their way through all of her muscles kept her still.

She then heard her com link turn back on.

"Hey!"

"Marshall?" asked Natalia.

"Yeah, hey, hi, it's me. Yeah. You okay out there? Heard a lot of noise, but uh, well, didn't wanna interrupt when you were talkin' to your people."

"Yes, I'm fine. I encountered those commandos you were speaking of."

"Yeah, gunfire, explosions, heard all of that. Hoped you'd make it out, because I've got something juicy for you."

"You found something in Genevieve's files?"

"Told ya I would. Was a bit of a trek to get one of the computers on. I mean, what's the use of a an auxiliary generator if the damn thing can't power the elevators, electronics or even most of the damn lights when it needs to? Anyway, I poked through her data logs. Would've done it earlier but I was afraid for my job, but, you know, times have changed, right?"

"What did you find?"

"Turns out this whole damn building is just a front for something larger. I knew the data we were workin' on was for something else, but I never believed it was this big. It's called Project Origin. Okay, listen to this part: apparently it's an off-shoot of some weapons program from the sixties. Real hush, right? They were trying to use the DNA of a mutant to engineer bio-organic weapons. Something about using psychic energy in a weaponized form. Sounds like some rough shit."

"The mutant . . . . who is it?"

"That's the worst fuckin' part. It's just a damn kid. Seven year old girl, name's Alma. But Genevieve here says they had no choice. Says she's the only telepath to ever be born, so it had to be her. Took her away as a damn baby soon as they knew what she could do. Holy hell, right?"

Images started to flash in Natalia's mind.

A screaming baby being held by a doctor.

_"No! No, don't do it again. Please!"_

A man smacking his head against a metal wall until it exploded.

_"Stay away from her!"_

A woman in a black uniform picking a scalpel off a medical table.

_"What's the first thing you remember?"_

All of the glass windows of an empty interview room simultaneously shattering.

_"STAY AWAY FROM HER!"_

Three identical music boxes sitting on a shelf.

_"I didn't have a choice . . . ."_

A bloodied hand reaching forward from the darkness until it covered her face.

_"We all tried to forget . . . ."_

". . . . you there? Natalia? Hey! You here me? Oh come on, will you please say something to lemme know you're alive?"

"I . . . . I'm here," said Natalia. "I'm here."

"Good," replied Marshall. "Thought I lost ya there. Anyway, figured you'd wanna know that. I'm sure whoever sent these guys wants something to do with the kid. I'll keep looking."

"Okay. Thanks."

"No problem. Talk to ya soon."

The com link turned off again, and Natalia focused on her breathing as she cycled through the facts in her mind. She couldn't shake off the feeling that something was not quite adding up.

_"Over here . . . ."_

Natalia jerked her head to the left upon hearing the whisper. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the form of an adult female walking down the hall. Natalia jumped up to her feet and looked down the hall, but no one was there.

_"I never wanted this . . . ."_

Furrowing her brow, Natalia marched forward, no longer fazed by the thoughts in her mind that were not her own. Somehow, hearing the information from Marshall had given her new resolve. Turning the corner, her eyes then widened to see a ghostly apparition of Jin standing in front of the elevators, staring at Natalia with gouged eyes.

_"I just wanted to help . . . ."_

Jin's ghost exploded into dust, just like the man from the hallway with the double doors. Natalia frowned upon seeing the flecks of dust settle on the floor. The elevator she was in front of then opened, the inside being lit. There were four other elevators in the row, but none of them were powered. Taking in another deep breath, Natalia moved forward, walking into the elevator.

Standing inside and turning around to face the doors, Natalia noticed that there were buttons for each floor, but one in particular stood out.

Floor –1.

A circle was drawn around the button in blood. Natalia reached forward and pushed it, and the elevator doors closed.

* * *

The bleeding man just stood there, staring at her. The cuts on his forehead continued to leak red fluid, dripping down his face and onto his clothes.


	5. Dark Signal

Earth-717 Special #1: Project Origin

Chapter 5: Dark Signal

"You have one new message."

"Hey, Marshall? It's Janice. Wanted to drop you a line on how things are going up here. Heard from Bill and a couple of the others that another member of the board of directors is coming to visit in the next few days. Not sure who it is, some guy named Salyers? Anyway, not important. Point is, apparently he's here because of something Aristide did. It's all hush hush, but I think she might have taken a piss in the wrong person's cereal bowl, if you know what I mean. Don't know what this means for Origin, but I gotta feeling that some big shakedowns are on the way. Maybe Aristide will finally get what's coming to her. Either way, just wanted to give you a heads up, see how you're doing. You should get outta the damn cubicle den and come out with us some time, you know, with Iain, Bill and I. Maybe Friday? Call me back if you want in."

* * *

_"You can feel it drawing you closer, can't you?"_

The bleeding man moved his blood-soaked hand through his hair, all while maintaining his insidious grin.

_"She wants you to know. Needs you to know. Needs you to remember . . . . remember all the time we lost. That's why you were brought here. She was calling out . . . . hoping to reach your ears. A dark signal with one purpose: to find you, and bring you down here to hell."_

The bleeding man then turned away and took a moment before speaking again.

_"Don't keep her waiting."_

* * *

12:34 AM

As the doors closed, Natalia stood still. She felt the entire apparatus lurch before it slowly started descending along the vertical track. She was standing in the centre of the elevator, slowly and steadily breathing, when suddenly a noise came in over the internal speakers.

It was elevator music.

Natalia looked up at the upper corner, and raised an eyebrow as she listened to a strange rendition of "The Girl From Ipanema". The soothing serenade of smooth jazz slithered through her, giving the atmosphere a strangely gentle edge, as if to keep the sinister elements at bay. The calming music stood in stark contrast to the blood dripping from the circle around the button for Floor –1, which had started seeping down the elevator wall, welling into a pool on the floor.

Despite everything, Natalia couldn't help but nod her head to the tune, tapping her right foot to the rhythm. The song then abruptly cut out, and everything went dark.

* * *

Yelena and Kaminsky walked into a large floor filled with cubicles. The entire place was a mess, having been torn apart by the remains of gunfire and explosions. Yelena narrowed her eyes as she surveyed the situation, not showing any emotion on her face. Kaminsky was more visibly affected by what he saw.

"Fucking hell."

The two operatives approached the centre of the room, where a scenic display of carnage awaited them. Kaminsky's gloved hands tensed up as he took it all in. Yelena gritted her teeth without opening her mouth.

There were at least a dozen bodies in the room, all of them belonging to ArmaCham Security Force personnel. Their outfits were similar to those of police officers, with navy blue shirts, kevlar vests, and aquamarine caps with the ArmaCham logo on them. Most of the bodies were in a single, blood-drenched pile, resembling a massive stack of pancakes.

Numerous lacerations and burn marks covered the bodies, with several separated appendages adding to the atmosphere of the grisly scene. A couple of the bodies were completely charred, their skin reduced to a roasted, ashen state, the internal organs still being cooked by the heat. The worst part were the faces. They were all visible, and all of the eyes were still open.

"Guess we know what happened to the security," said Kaminsky.

Yelena tapped the com link in her ear.

"Rodney?"

"Yeah."

"We found some security guards. Looks like they were massacred. Given what I'm looking at, these mercenaries are cold."

"Sons of bitches, more like," interrupted Kaminsky.

"Alright, keep looking," said Rodney. "Too late to help the dead."

"Yes sir."

Kneeling down beside the bodies, Kaminsky took several moments to study them, clearly needing time to process what he was seeing.

"Just fucking slaughtered. I don't . . . ."

His eyes closed, Kaminsky shook his head. Yelena turned away from him, and saw a hall leading out from the other side of the room. She could see an office door at the end of the hall. There was a small plaque attached to the wall just to the side of the door.

G. Aristide.

Yelena put on the tiniest of grins as she started walking towards the hallway, pulling out her pistol.

* * *

_ "Come find me . . . ."_

Natalia was standing on an empty road, surrounded by fog in all directions. She couldn't make out any of the nearby buildings, with them all being vague shapes that were barely visible. Breathing quickly and heavily, she then heard the faint giggling of a young girl. Turning in the direction that the noise seemed to be coming from, Natalia squinted as she thought she could see something moving through the fog.

"Hello?"

Natalia did not receive an answer. Taking a few more seconds to regulate her breathing, she then started running in that direction. For a while, the only sound she could hear were her own feet clamping against the pavement. She completely lost track of time as she ran, before finally coming to a stop and bending over to catch her breath.

Her hands on her knees, Natalia panted for a minute, feeling like her lungs were going to explode. Wiping her forehead with her left wrist, she then blinked upon hearing the sound of a church bell. The noise was very soft, but it was distinct enough that she could instantly identify it. Looking all around her, she tried to get a handle on exactly where it was coming from.

Choosing a direction, Natalia then started to move towards the bell, which kept ringing. She made sure to mind her pace, moving at a quick jog rather than a full on sprint like before. As the ringing slowly grew louder, she was then surprised by the sound under her feet changing. Looking down, she saw that she was now standing on a bridge that was made out of a kind of grated metal.

Stepping to the side, Natalia saw a sidewalk and a metal railing. Grabbing the railing with both hands, she looked over the edge. More fog was beneath the bridge, and she wondered if there was either a river or a canyon below. Shaking her head and scratching the back of her neck, she then turned back to the direction of the bell and continued her journey.

Reaching the end of the bridge, Natalia chose to stay on the sidewalk. Following the tiled path, she walked past several buildings, but they were all abandoned. Many of the windows were either smashed or boarded up, and none of them had any signs of life, clearly having been vacated for many years.

She halted herself upon one of the windows catching her eye. Turning towards it, she saw that it was the remains of a toy store, with several weathered items still on the display shelves. Placing her gloved hands on the glass, she looked over each item.

A chipped action figure, with much of the paint scraped off. An old teddy bear, with several cuts that had stuffing popping out of them. A model ship that had a handful of broken pieces.

Each one was a long dead dream.

Natalia then paused upon seeing the item furthest to the left. It was an old, wooden music box, with a name plate that had the lettering scratched off. For a couple minutes, she just stared at the music box, but she couldn't understand why. For some reason, she felt as if she had seen it before, and that it carried some sort of importance to her.

A lost relic from another life.

Natalia then felt the urge to smash the window and take the music box. As she stepped back and reached for her pistol, she then heard a scream coming from behind her. Quickly spinning around, Natalia then loudly gasped upon seeing a burning church on the other side of the street.

_"Help me!"_

Natalia rushed towards the building and accidentally tripped over the sidewalk. Scrambling back to her feet, she then heard the crying of a young girl coming from inside.

"Who's in there?! Hello? Can you hear me?! Hello!"

The crying continued, but no one answered her. Steeling herself, Natalia prepared to charge into the building when she saw a short figure trudge out the front door. It was a young girl in a pyjama dress, with ashes all over her skin. The girl coughed and slumped to the floor. Natalia screamed as she ran forward and cradled the girl.

"No, no, no . . . ."

Natalia choked up, tears dripping off her face and onto the girl's skin, washing away some of the ashes. Natalia brushed the girl's hair with her hand, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, rain started to pour, and the moisture filled up the air all around them. After a few minutes of silence, the girl finally spoke up.

_"Why didn't you save me?"_

* * *

Natalia's eyes burst open as she grabbed at her chest. She looked all around her to see that she was back in the elevator, and she realized that she had no idea how long she had been in there. Suddenly, a small streak of blue light seeped into the elevator through the miniscule crack between the doors. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath before exhaling.

The doors then opened to the main laboratory. The floor was made of a metal grating, and various pieces of scientific equipment were strewn about. She then looked at the centre of the main chamber, to see a massive, blue sphere, which was was mostly full of a gyrating, glowing liquid. Over a dozen metallic tubes were connected to the top of the orb, all funnelling towards the hovering silhouette in the middle of the liquid chamber.

The silhouette was in the shape of a young girl.

Natalia quietly gasped upon seeing several mercenary commandos standing near the orb, with a larger man, obviously the leader. A woman in business attire was standing closest to the orb. Her hand was outstretched, as if she was going to touch the glass.

A voice whispered in the back of Natalia's mind.

_"Help me."_

Furrowing her brow, Natalia clenched her fists before sticking them both forward. One of the mercenaries turned to look at her.

"Oh, fuck!"

Natalia opened fire with her wrist gauntlets before most of the mercenaries even turned their heads. Her bullets shredded the torsos of the commandos as she charged forward, leaving a cloud of blood in the air before they collectively collapsed.

The mercenary leader shouted in anger at the ambush, pulling out a desert eagle magnum from a holster on his belt. Performing a cartwheel, Natalia dodged his first shot, which tore a large hole in the floor's grating. She didn't even get a good look at his face as he lined up and missed a second shot. He then seemed to hesitate for a moment, and Natalia seized the chance to use a spin kick to knock the magnum out of his hands.

It landed on the floor next to him, its right side facing upwards.

Pulling out her knife as she spun around again, she then plunged it straight into the man's chest as he seemed to stand still. Her eyes closed, she then pulled the knife back, spilling several splatters of blood across the metal grating. The man coughed multiple times before falling to the floor. Genevieve screamed in terror.

Natalia placed the knife back on her belt before looking down at the man.

"You . . . ."

Natalia shook her head as she listened to the voice.

"You said . . . . you w-wouldn't . . . . f-for . . . . forget m-me . . . ."

Natalia gasped.

"Lapochka," said Alexi.

"No!"

Natalia leaped down at Alexi, putting her hands on his chest as the blood from her blade wound seeped into his clothes. She was paralyzed, only able to look at her own blood-soaked hands. Genevieve watched her, completely stunned. Natalia started crying as she sat down on the floor, cradling Alexi's head in her arms.

"Oh . . . . oh n-no, no, no . . . . oh, please, no . . . . Alexi . . . ."

"Na . . . . Nat . . . . al . . . ."

Alexi sighed and went limp. The pain forced the tears out of her eyes. Looking at the magnum, she instantly knew what it was. Reaching out with one hand, she grabbed it, and turned it around to see the left side.

_"Just one more, I promise."_

Natalia felt herself get colder as the words played over in her mind.

_"One more?"_

_ "My personal favourite. It's special. Like you."_

She cringed upon seeing exactly what she knew would be there. A red star painted on the left side of the desert eagle magnum, Alexi's favourite gun. She spent a couple of minutes just sitting there, unable to do anything but weep.

The entire time, Alma was there, staring down at her.

* * *

Yelena pulled the data drive out of Genevieve's computer after the download was complete. She unzipped a pouch affixed to her belt and placed the drive inside before zipping it back up. She then walked out of Genevieve's office and casually strolled towards the stairs. Along the way, she walked past Kaminsky's body, which was crumpled on the floor.

There were six bullet wounds in his back.

* * *

Rodney stared at his screen in disbelief. The life signs for all four team members were gone.

"Kaminsky?! Can you hear me? Yelena? Jin? Hello? Everyone's signal just went off at once! Anyone? Anyone?! Team, do you read? I repeat, do you read? Natalia? Where are you?! Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?! Hello? Hello!"

* * *

Her tear ducts drained, Natalia just sat there, completely silent, staring down at Alexi's corpse. Genevieve also sat there, completely silent, staring at Natalia. Alma stared at both of them, her gaze unbroken, even by blinking.

Natalia ran her gloved fingers through Alexi's hair, a sullen frown adorning her face. She had already closed his eyes for him. After a long while, the sounds of someone walking out of the darkness could be heard. Before Natalia could do anything about it, she could then feel Alma's gaze in her mind, and within moments she passed out, her head falling onto Alexi's chest.

* * *

The bleeding man slowly clapped, as "The Girl From Ipanema" played from an unseen speaker in the darkness.

_"Well done, my dear."_


	6. Red Room

Earth-717 Special #1: Project Origin

Chapter 6: Red Room

"You have one new message."

"Hello, Chuck? It's Genevieve. Just wanted to shoot you a quick thank you message for sending that music box up to my office. It um . . . . it really means a lot to me, so I appreciate it immensely. Have a good day, okay?"

* * *

_"What's the first thing you remember?"_

The bleeding man then put a finger up to his lips, making a silencing gesture.

_"On second thought, no more questions. Let's just spin the wheel . . . . and see what happens."_

* * *

1:21 AM

Natalia's eyes opened. Shaking her head to get rid of her grogginess, she then stood up and looked forward to see Genevieve, who was standing with her arms held up in the air. It took Natalia a moment to see that both of Genevieve's wrists were handcuffed to the wall. Alma's orb was still in the same place, and she was still watching.

A man then started walking out of the darkness. At first Natalia thought it was the bleeding man, but it wasn't.

It was Marshall.

"Marshall?"

Natalia motioned as if she was going to take a step forward. Marshall held up his palm, gesturing for her to stop.

"Will you please stand still?"

Natalia found her muscles instantly frozen. She was no longer trying to move, but instead felt compelled to obey Marshall's direction.

"Good girl."

Natalia's eyes darted around as she tried to understand what was happening to her. She felt completely detached from her body.

"What is . . . . what's happening?"

"Will you please," said Marshall, as he started pacing around Natalia, his hands held behind his back. "Three very powerful words, Natalia. Very powerful indeed. I honestly didn't know if they would still work when you waltzed into my office. Had to, ah . . . . check."

Natalia's breathing slowed down as she remembered her previous conversations with Marshall.

"Security protocol. Put in place to ensure that certain subjects complied. Obviously the code words only work when uttered by specific personnel. To be quite honest, Natalia, you were an excellent sport. I didn't really need to do more than give you a gentle nudge every now and then."

Natalia then looked to the side to see a pile of bodies. All of them were ArmaCham Security Force officers.

"Those men . . . . they're not the mercenaries from before."

"Ah yes. The mercenaries. I had wondered if you would figure that out in time."

"What?"

"There never were any mercenaries, Natalia," said Marshall. "There was only the ArmaCham Security Force. Alma . . . . she has the ability to change the way you see things. She used some of them to secure the building at first . . . . and then had you wipe out the rest."

Natalia started breathing heavily as she tried to process the information she had just been given.

"What's . . . . who are you?"

"Who am I? Now, that . . . . that is a very interesting question, coming from you."

Marshall looked up at Alma, who continued to stare at Natalia with her unbreakable orange gaze.

"Tell me, Natalia . . . . what's the first thing you remember?"

Several of the images started to flash in her mind again. A screaming baby being held by a doctor. A woman in a black uniform picking a scalpel off a medical table. Three identical music boxes sitting on a shelf. A bloodied hand reaching forward from the darkness until it covered her face.

Natalia winced as the memories faded. Genevieve looked at her with concern.

"Difficult, isn't it? Feels somewhat jumbled, right? You've been seeing the pieces of the puzzle float around, and as a courtesy, I'll put them in place for you."

Marshall resumed his pacing. He marched with cold confidence, as if he knew that he controlled all of the variables.

"My name actually is Marshall Disler, I didn't lie about that. I was recruited by the Soviet Union in 1962 as part of a secret weapons program, codenamed the Red Room. The goal was to create a new line of super soldiers, similar to America's own Project Pythagoras back in the forties. We had managed to get our hands . . . . via some, rather unscrupulous means . . . . on an imperfect version of Abraham Erskine's super soldier serum. Captain America may have been a success, in the short term anyway, but we wanted to do it better. We wanted to do it right."

Genevieve shook her head, but seemed to be unable to speak.

"You see the problem with the serum, especially in the, unfinished state that it was, was that there were specific genetic markers that made it viable only in certain candidates. Eventually we realized that the best way to create viable serum subjects wasn't through injection but through . . . . genetic engineering."

"What are you talking about?" asked Natalia.

"Direct manipulation of the offspring of a viable candidate to ensure maximum serum potential. Quite an intriguing and, frankly, very difficult science. We wanted to make not just perfect soldiers, but also maintainable ones. A special gene was inserted that would ensure that the serum's chemistry changed once the subjects became adults, that would keep them in perfect working order for decades to come. No aging after the age of twenty; a natural lifespan of possibly a hundred years past that. Took quite a while before we really managed to get it right. We found a woman who matched the serum, and we were able to impregnate her with two offspring from a suitable donor."

Natalia felt as if Alma's gaze was about to pierce her skull.

"Twin baby girls."

"Twins?"

"Yes. You were the second one to come out," said Marshall. "You were eight minutes behind your sister."

"Sister? Wha . . . . What sister? Who is she?"

Marshall inhaled before speaking.

"You know her as Yelena Belova."

Natalia's eyes widened as an image of a younger Yelena walked up to her, holding out her hand.

"Yelena?"

"You grew up together in the Red Room facility. You two were the first of your kind, and you were given codenames. She was the White Widow, and you . . . . you were the Black Widow. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, including the security protocols I previously mentioned, Yelena was always a . . . . trouble child. Difficult to control. Difficult to deal with. Always trying to . . . . skirt the boundaries of what she was created for."

An image flashed in Natalia's mind of a burning church.

"But then something happened that we were not expecting. As you two were reaching your fifteenth birthdays, a third Widow came into our lives. It seems that the golden goose . . . . had one final egg to give."

Marshall then looked over at Genevieve, who cringed. Natalia looked at Alma and then back at Genevieve.

"Muh . . . . m-mother?"

"Ding, ding, ding, ding!" whispered Marshall. "Say hello to the Widowmaker. The one and only, Genevieve Aristide."

Alma then stared at Genevieve, who remained silent.

"She quite literally gave the project life," continued Marshall. "Unlike with you and your twin sister, the third child was not grown in the lab. We never found out the father. Genevieve refused to give his name. But honestly, it mattered little. Because the child that would come . . . . the Red Widow . . . . would be the most fascinating one of all."

Marshall held out his arms in front of Alma's orb.

"Alma Wade. A mutant. The first human telepath. A remarkable achievement, Genevieve, truly. She doesn't have the serum inside her. She's not really a product of the original intent of the Red Room, but she is remarkable, isn't she?"

Natalia closed her eyes as she heard the screams of Alma in her mind. She was the screaming baby being held by the doctor.

_ "Stay away from her!"_

The doctor ignored her, walking away with the wailing infant.

_"STAY AWAY FROM HER!"_

Natalia opened her eyes and looked at Alma, who was staring at Marshall.

"Say hello to your baby sister, Natalia."

Natalia started crying as she kept her eyes on Alma. She then saw the three identical music boxes on the shelf, except this time she could read the labels.

Yelena.

Natalia.

Alma.

"Unfortunately, the rest of the Red Room staff disagreed on what we should do with little Alma. Once we knew what we were dealing with . . . . not just any mutant, but a real, live, telepath . . . . they wanted to get hasty. See the effects of psychic energy, see if they could turn it into a weapon. Genevieve of course, wanted none of it, so they threw her out. I've done some terrible things in my time, but even I wanted to draw the line."

Alma was still staring at Marshall, her empty gaze seething with rage. Marshall went back to his pacing routine.

"They . . . . we . . . . did things that I'm not proud of. We started to . . . . lose our way. Our directing officer believed that the Widows needed to have modified memories . . . . inserted memories . . . . so that they would be emotionally detached, unable to form connections. That this would make them more efficient assassins. Easier to control. The things you remember . . . . may not have been real. We didn't know what we were getting into. The field was all new. We . . . . made mistakes."

Marshall licked his lower lip for a moment, taking pause to carefully consider his next words.

"Eventually, I realized that I needed to end what was happening. And so I set you and Yelena free. You ran . . . . and what happened from there until now is your doing. I took Alma . . . . I figured that I could find somewhere better for her . . . . until Genevieve found me. She told me about this place, somewhere that she had earned a reputation. Somewhere that might be able to keep Alma safe."

Marshall then turned to look at Genevieve.

"Isn't that right, Genevieve?"

Genevieve didn't respond.

"I said . . . ."

"I don't need to explain myself to you, Disler!" shouted Genevieve. "You ruined my life!"

"But I saved your children! All of them! And then you had the chance to give Alma a better life . . . . and what did you do? You took her away from me! You stuffed her into that orb so you could profit off her! You're no better than we were!"

"Is it true?"

Marshall and Genevieve turned their heads to look at Natalia.

"Is it true?" Natalia repeated. "You did this to her?"

Genevieve furrowed her brow as she glared at Natalia.

"You were our mother!" shouted Natalia. "Why didn't you help us?! Help her?"

"I'm not your mother," responded Genevieve. "Those filthy Red Room scientists rented out my womb so that they could build you, you, their perfect little toy. You and that brat, Yelena. Brought me nothing but misery and pain. You're no daughter to me. You're just a fully grown lab experiment that used my body as the test tube."

Natalia scowled at Genevieve, who scoffed in return.

"Genevieve here thought that she could find a way to monetize Alma's powers," said Marshall. "So she stuck me in a small position in the building, thinking that she could control me. I agreed . . . . so that I could keep an eye on Alma."

The lines of Natalia's face softened as she listened to the next part of Marshall's story.

"I'll admit . . . . I came to care about her. Here she was . . . . a vulnerable little girl. No father. A mother who didn't give a shit about her. Always someone else's plaything, someone else's bargaining chip. I stayed . . . . I took the crap pay . . . . I let Genevieve control me, so long as I got to keep an eye on her. Help her out when I could. Little things."

Marshall gulped before continuing.

"I'd been waiting so long for this moment. When I could finally bring the family back together."

"How?" asked Natalia. "How did you bring us here? Me?"

"Alma always wanted to know you. Even though she was a newborn, your attempt to save her imprinted itself on her mind. She told me . . . . in visions . . . . that she wanted you. I think she has a way of changing things . . . . the signals she puts out . . . . I was Fury's inside source at ArmaCham. I made sure SHIELD was aware of what was happening here. And when you arrived . . . . I knew that I was finally going to get the reunion she always wanted. The reunion . . . . with the only person who did nothing but love her."

Alma slowly turned her head to look at Natalia.

"And now that all the cards have been laid out . . . . it's time for some housekeeping."

Marshall walked next to Natalia. He folded his arms and stared at Genevieve.

"Will you please aim your gun at Genevieve?"

Natalia instantly held out her pistol, pointing it directly at Genevieve, who started hyperventilating.

"Marshall, you little shit! You don't get to walk away from this!"

"Will you please pull the trigger?"

"Marshall!"

Natalia fired a single shot, directly into the heart of her mother. Genevieve gasped at the impact, and then went limp. Marshall then grabbed Natalia's pistol out of her hand, holding it at his side.

"You're right, Genevieve," said Marshall. "I don't get to walk away from this. None of us do."

Marshall then placed the gun inside his mouth and fired a shot, splattering his brains onto the back wall. The gun fell to the floor next to his body. Natalia instantly felt herself in control of her limbs again. She then looked up at Alma, who was staring at her. For a few seconds, they just looked at each other, knowing what needed to happen next.

The orb then exploded.

* * *

Natalia strode up the hill. It was covered in a comforting and colourful blanket of flowers. A single cherry orchard rested at the peak of the hill, with two thin ropes tied to one of the lower branches. The bottom ends of the ropes were fastened to a tiny wooden plank, forming a swing.

Alma was sitting on the plank, gently rocking back and forth.

Natalia stopped just behind Alma, taking a few seconds to just look at the girl in silence.

"I have to go away now, don't I?"

Natalia didn't need to respond.

"Will you stay here with me? For a few minutes?"

"Of course."

Alma hopped off the swing, landing on the ground with her bare feet. She then took a couple steps forward and sat down, crossing her legs and placing her elbows on her knees. Natalia walked up and sat down beside her, taking the same pose.

For a few precious minutes, they just sat together, staring out at the gorgeous meadow and the setting sun.

"Thank you," said Alma.

Natalia wrapped her right arm around Alma's shoulders, resting her hand just under her chin. Tears in her eyes, Natalia then placed her left hand on the top of Alma's head.

"You're welcome."

* * *

Natalia walked out of the ArmaCham Technology Corporation building. Her com link then activated.

"Natalia?" asked Rodney. "Is that you?"

"I'm here."

"What the fuck happened? I lost your signal for almost an hour!"

"The mission's complete."

"What do you mean?"

"It's over. I'll explain when I get back."

* * *

A few days later, Natalia found herself back in the Siberian forest. She walked along the path that was next to the lake, feeling the frigid breeze massage her skin. The breeze was accompanied by the slow, gorgeous dance of the falling deciduous leaves. All of the memories came flooding back to her, but she focused hard on tuning them out. She had to see for herself.

She walked at a very slow pace, taking all the time she needed. She arrived at the same place in the forest that was in her memory. Looking at the place where her and Alexi's tent had been, she then retraced her steps until she arrived at the tree he had carved at.

She felt a terrible pain in her heart to see that the tree's bark was completely smooth. For a few minutes, she stood there, mourning the love she believed she might never have had. Wiping away her tears, she then started walking back the way she came.

A few metres away, on the back of a tree she hadn't looked at, was a carving.

Natalia &amp; Alexi.

THE END

* * *

Epilogue

Kicking back her feet, Yelena looked at the computer monitor in front of her. She was inside of a penthouse apartment, with an open window looking out over the Mediterranean. She was wearing nothing but an elegant, white bath robe, holding a coffee cup in her left hand. The computer had the data drive from Genevieve's office plugged into it.

ALMA WADE FILES SENT TO: TWO RECIPIENTS.

DATA RECEIVED.

FIRST RECIPIENT.

TRANSFERRING PAYMENT FROM: DOCTOR NATHANIEL ESSEX.

DATA RECEIVED.

SECOND RECIPIENT.

TRANSFERRING PAYMENT FROM: ADVANCED IDEA MECHANICS.

Yelena smirked as she took a sip of her coffee.


End file.
